The game started with a rare event this season as captain Tom Pettet won the toss. He put Brenham in to bat and HSM got off to a good start when Curley Louw took a catch diving forward from square leg off opener Haran Dharmaraja to remove opener Warwick Shanly.

Louw struck next thanks to a catch by Sam Blennerhassett to dismiss Ashwin Kapoor.

And when Subhesh Satyam caught Jaz Rehal in the slips off Dharmaraja Brentham’s top three were back in the pavilion with the score on 32.

Hopes of restricting Brentham then faded as Brentham’s next pairing of captain Luke Buddon and Matthew Lowen put on a partnership of 172.

It then took until the 45th over for HSM to get their next wicket and that came from an LBW by Dharmaraja who got Lowen out for 81.

Brentham’s next four batsmen only added 19 runs thanks to a great throw from the cover boundary by Sikander Randhawa, a run out by Tom Pettet and then a running, rolling catch by him on the long-on boundary which at last removed Buddon for 127 with 50 overs gone. They declared in the 51st on 253 for eight, and Dharmaraja finished with figures of three for 75.

In reply, HSM were going well with Lakmal Kasthuri hitting boundaries until Satyam was bowled for a duck in the fourth over to leave his side 20 for one.

Sam Blennerhasset joined Kasthuri but didn’t stay for long as he bowled for two. Kasthuri was then dropped twice in consecutive balls when on 39 and when Louw was caught behind on 10 HSM were 52 for three in the eighth.

Captain Pettet helped guide Kasthuri to his 50 in the 12th over until he was bowled for 21. A partnership between Randhawa and Kasthuri took HSM to needing 74 off 16 overs but then Kasthuri was stumped on 91 to leave the score 187 for five.

Harmeet Singh was then caught for seven and then the run rate rose and with the loss of wickets HSM’s attention turned to securing a winning draw instead of the win but with a handful of overs to go, a maiden faced by Gary Pettet gave the initiative to Brentham and HSM could only finish with the one point with Randhawa 88 not out.

HSM 2nds 305-3 beat Crouch End 2nds 88 by 217 runs

Batting first, Nishil Patel was the first to fall, caught for 18. He was followed by Laadi Singh for 39 in the 13th over.

Then a 177-run partnership between Keagan Wheeler and Prasanna De Alwis took HSM to 244 before DeAlwis was out bowled for 64. Gevindu Liyanage (22 not out) accompanied Wheeler to an unbeaten 151 and HSM declared on 305 for three after 39 overs.

Wickets were shared among several HSM bowlers with Amit Patel, Tony Wright, Keagan Wheeler and Monty Jivraj all taking two while Harindu Gunasekara’s spin tied up Crouch End, bowling nine overs for just 10 runs and returning one wicket. Nishil Patel finished their innings in his second over to have Crouch End bowled out for 88 in 40.3 overs.

Top of the table Middx Tamils only managed a winning draw against bottom of the table Edmonton and both of these results leave HSM ahead by two points which will set up what could be the first leg of the title clincher when they meet each other this coming Saturday.